MEXICO AND INDIA 199 



cept a narrow strip along the seaboard, and have never 

 been subdued ; and no wonder ; you might as well try 

 to drown a cloud of mosquitoes as attempt to get at 

 them through the woods where they retire. Every little 

 while they make a dash into the small settlements and 

 destroy everything. Tritas used to be a prosperous place 

 of fifteen hundred inhabitants ; there is nothing left but 

 a few houses and half-breeds. On the way to the ruins we 

 passed a couple more villages entirely overgrown with 

 trees about ten years old, so that had they not been 

 pointed out you would never have suspected their ex- 

 istence. We had seventy-five men escort and about fifty 

 more men had been sent ahead to clear away the rub- 

 bish from the ruins, so that I had all that afternoon and 

 the next day to see the remains found at Chichen. 



Look in the Stevens which is on my shelves — Stev- 

 ens's " Yucatan" — and you will find a good descrip- 

 tion of all I have seen, only the ruins are fast going to 

 the dogs, and in the last twelve years, since Mr. Char- 

 nay was here, the changes have been very great, and 

 with this rate of destruction nothing will be left of these 

 magnificent ruins except piles of stones. At Izamal 

 there are also pyramids which we examined on our way. 

 The two nights I spent at Chichen we lived in the ruins 

 in the " Castillo," so that we were perfectly safe from 

 attack, and the men besides were all out on picket and 

 careful watch kept — but all was quiet. 



The only drawback to this expedition has been the 

 ticks ; you get perfectly covered with them ; they are 

 very small and sting in proportion ; the after effects 

 especially are very unpleasant. 



I kept an eye on the geology of the country, which 

 is most interesting and supplements the history of 



